“Those are young people with poor self-determination and irresponsibility!”

Regarding the ‘gap year’ trend of young people, PV Infonet had a discussion with Assoc. Dr. Tran Thanh Nam, Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi):

Currently, some young people go to university but are still confused about which profession they are suitable for. These friends decided to spend 1 year following the trend of “gap year” to redefine their goals. What do you think about this phenomenon?

Obviously delaying a year is that young people decide not to be smart. I think that parents and teachers should be the ones to help students make choices based on their own strengths.

To determine a career that is suitable for your ability, when choosing a major, young people must carefully look at that major in the description of the university published on the school’s website. Young people have to see what jobs they can do after graduating from that program…

In addition, young people should also see if they have finished studying that program when they graduate, what competencies and output standards will they get, if they have not determined their passion, they must choose a program where all the common competencies are shared. about information technology, foreign languages, critical thinking as well as entrepreneurship, 4.0 … must have so that at least the first year students have not entered the major but have general skills but cannot say they have finished their studies. 1 year with nothing.

I think, if you can’t choose a career as your strength, then don’t choose an industry where you will surely have difficulties when you work, for example, if you don’t know how to draw, it’s difficult to choose architecture or art related majors. already.

In your opinion, should young people choose a career according to their hobbies or trends?

We cannot choose a career according to the trend because the trend we are seeing is only a current trend, but 4-5 years after you graduate, it is no longer a fertile trend, nor is that industry. There is still a huge demand for human resources.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thanh Nam, Dean of Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Education.

Therefore, choosing a career must determine what capacity you are equipped with and how that ability helps you to adapt to the very rapid change of the labor market in the near future. Choosing a career according to the trend, your competition will be great because you are not good, if you are not excellent, you cannot get a good job position, not to mention our world is very uncertain and ambiguous, so there are things I think it’s a trend, but it’s not.

So how do young people determine their career interests after high school?

Parents and teachers must accompany the children in choosing a career, and choosing a career in the whole process because sometimes young people just like it temporarily, not turning into a strength to choose a career.

For example, there are students who think that they like to go to many places, approach many people and open their eyes, so they choose tourism, but when they study, they discover that it is not their hobby.

That’s why I say choosing an industry must have a long-term observation, based on evidence, based on the long-term potential observed over time, based on a set of objective assessment tools through which to reflect. capacity as well as qualities and career inclinations of each child.

Choosing a career also needs experts with knowledge of labor market forecasting as well as forecasting future career trends to analyze.

And many parents do not fully understand the training majors in university, so just reading the program name thought it was hot. For example, many parents only read the program name with the words “management”, “economics”, “money”, “finance” to force their children to register for a degree and do not need to know that the major in the university will teach their children. myself what.

Or there are parents who keep hearing the name of the field with the word “information” and force their children to register because they think it is “information technology”, but after studying for 2 years, they fall back to study “library information”. It is childish and ignorant that parents need to keep in mind when orienting their children’s careers.

Should young people experience a “gap year” when they feel it is not suitable for their field of study?

I think it depends family circumstancesif your family is aristocratic family, no need to care about money and unlimited time, then you can squander it freely, try all the opportunities to see what works for you.

However, the fact is that not all families have such conditions, if you waste 1 year, your parents will work harder for 1 more year.

In fact, those who cannot choose a career in some aspect also show that they have no orientation and poor self-determination ability, no decision-making method, and are irresponsible to themselves, to their families. family.

I encourage you to decide as soon as possible career orientation in the future and must take responsibility for their decisions.

So, take a moment to understand yourself, understand the professional world, understand career trends and make the earliest decisions.

It’s a bit late for the 12th graders this year to think about career guidance, but imagine what kind of person you want to be in the future, what environment do you want to work in to narrow the industry direction. the profession you want to study.

Thank you for the chat!